A Humble Proposal for Tokyo Vice's Continued Existence

By Nicholas Quah, a Vulture critic who covers podcasts, television, and pop culture

In the end, everything worked out for the better on Tokyo Vice — give or take a parade of dead bodies, one dethroned prime minister, at least one broken friendship, several ruined lives, and a fortune in future therapist bills for everyone involved. Just another day at the Meicho, you know? And while Max hasn’t officially canceled the show, it’s hard to describe the resolution to the second season as anything but conclusive. Scary Yakuza villain Tozawa is snuffed out. Our beautiful boy Sato is now the boss of his own gumi. Sam is taking a countryside vacation, I think, before starting up another hostess club. Jake, Katagiri, and their respective loved ones are safe (until the next case, at least). All of which is to say, the finale may theoretically leave the door open for new adventures, but this seems to pretty definitively be the end of Tokyo Vice.

… Or is it? Does it have to be? Sure, filming in Japan may well be too pricey for a certain cost-cutting media conglomerate, but that isn’t necessarily a mortal impediment preventing the show from living on. Consider, for instance, a humble proposal: What if Tokyo Vice were refashioned as a side-door prequel to, say, Industry?

Hear me out. The main thrust of Tokyo Vice’s second season revolved around Tozawa’s efforts to consolidate power and shift the yakuza toward where the big money is: the realms of finance and corporate boardrooms. This is apparently a transition that actually happened here in the real world. About a decade ago, three of Japan’s largest banks came under heavy public scrutiny for giving loans to people connected to yakuza activities, which wasn’t even a novel occurrence at the time; in fact, the yakuza’s integration into high finance — spanning an array of chicanery from suspect investments to insider trading — was thought to already be happening since the mid-’90s, partly as a response to declining membership rates and growing societal stigma toward the organization. The real Jake Adelstein, with his penchant for mythologizing, once likened the yakuza’s modern-day finance-bro turn to “Goldman Sachs with guns.” Tozawa might’ve ultimately been foiled before he could see out this plot, but that doesn’t preclude, say, Sato from reprising the effort himself and ushering in a new corporate age for the yakuza in Tokyo Vice’s universe.

Which brings us to Industry. When we last left that show, Harper, our unsettling anti-hero, was out of a job and out of the game after her frene-mentor Eric gets her fired from Pierpoint partly to protect her from her own actions but mostly to get back on top. After all, she did inadvertently commit insider trading after getting caught up in the web of Wu-Tang-blasting American billionaire Jesse Bloom. In any rational universe, she should probably take the hit and steer clear of finance for the rest of her days lest she risk white-collar jail time and/or deportation back to the United States. But, of course, Harper is the walking embodiment of finance-bro solipsism, so you can bet your ass the third season will open with her working some angle to find a way back to her beloved Bloomberg Terminal. And what better way to do that than with the help of some enterprising white-collar yakuza money? (I’m cognizant that this is all gibberish if you, dear reader, are unfamiliar with Industry, in which case you should take this as an excuse to watch this excellent, if a little baffling, series.)

Yes, yes, I’m well aware the new Industry season is already in the can. HBO is planning to screen the premiere at the ATX TV Festival later this summer, presumably some time before it’ll properly roll out on the streaming service. And we broadly know that new cast member Kit Harington, who plays a green tech CEO with the incredible name of Henry Muck, will factor into Harper’s machinations somehow, and that whatever happens, her quest for hedge-fund greatness will continue to be fueled by betrayal, depressing sex, and the exquisite ennui of dumb young people with dumb amounts of money.

But … what if, you know? Look, the ~synergies~ are right there. Industry is a mega vibes show; so is Tokyo Vice. In many respects, Harper is not unlike the fictional Jake Adelstein in essence. Both are American nationals semi-sociopathically seeking glory in foreign lands. Both bear the distinctly Michael Mann–iacal curse of being dead inside without something impossible and chaotic to go after. Both, uh, favor formal attire? Anyway, a shared Tokyo Vice–Industry metaphysics would be in Warner Bros. Discovery’s best interests. We’re all looking for connected IP universes, right? You get two niche audiences combined for the price of one international production budget.

Plus, there’s precedent! We already know, for instance, that Kendall Roy exists in the world of Industry, though, granted, it’s not entirely clear whether the reference is alluding to Succession the TV show or the actual in-universe existence of the Roy family. Details! And sure, I hear you, the timelines don’t match up: Industry takes place in the present, while Tokyo Vice is supposedly a period piece set around the turn of the millennium, back when newspapers were still powerful and cell phones still went beep beep. Which means that to make this work, we have to either age up Ansel Elgort (who played Jake) and Sho Kasamatsu (who played Sato) or just break the time-space continuum entirely. Whatever! We’ll figure out the details later! Listen, it’s a great idea! Zaslav, don’t you wanna make money? Call me!